All I'm reading from this is that you're punishing your online customers because you have to contend to your retail operations.

On the contrary, what they're doing is making you, the customer, do the legwork by researching other retailers for a lower price to pricematch with instead of offering you the best price to begin with.

Yikes, why the aggression? Big Als is like the Newegg of the aquarium world: one stop shop with incredible prices and service. It's the first site I go to when I'm setting up a new tank. The information revealed in this thread is quite transparent and isn't something they had to take the time to reveal to their consumers. They are essentially giving you the instructions on how to get even better prices than they already have with a wink and a nod. That's something to be praised, not bashed.

I appreciate a rep from Big Als posting to this forum and answering questions. As for the customer effort of researching the best price for the best product, I do that now anyway --- couldn't imagine it any other way.

Question though: Is there anyway to price match online, or do I need to call in orders?

I appreciate a rep from Big Als posting to this forum and answering questions. As for the customer effort of researching the best price for the best product, I do that now anyway --- couldn't imagine it any other way.

Question though: Is there anyway to price match online, or do I need to call in orders?

At this time orders have to be called in and placed through a representative that will apply the matched prices for you.

This is the fastest way to process price matches. We have looked into automating it, but the process gets lengthened as price matches have to be approved before the order is processed either way.

Just my 2 cents, after reading this thread, I just called and took advantage of their pricematch to get something that marinedepot had a little cheaper. It took a few minutes but everything went fine. Im glad that Big Al's has representatives on the forum like this, if they didn't i probably wouldn't have bothered to call for the pricematch.
That said, most of the time you dont need to bother with the pricematch because Al's seems to generally have the best deals.
That said there were a few annoying caveats. My price match included the shipping cost from marinedepot, and i couldn't apply any coupon codes to the price-matched item. Still worth it because i got an Eheim 2213 for $30 less than the next best reputable dealer.

Just my 2 cents, after reading this thread, I just called and took advantage of their pricematch to get something that marinedepot had a little cheaper. It took a few minutes but everything went fine. Im glad that Big Al's has representatives on the forum like this, if they didn't i probably wouldn't have bothered to call for the pricematch.
That said, most of the time you dont need to bother with the pricematch because Al's seems to generally have the best deals.
That said there were a few annoying caveats. My price match included the shipping cost from marinedepot, and i couldn't apply any coupon codes to the price-matched item. Still worth it because i got an Eheim 2213 for $30 less than the next best reputable dealer.

When we price match we already take 5% off the competitors price, beyond that no discounts can apply.

Also, keep in mind many stores have low prices but high shipping rates or hidden fees. We will always take the bottom line at checkout, not just the face value listed on the website we are matching with. If your order total through us met Marine Depot's free shipping minimum order, the $6.99 shipping would not have applied to your price match.

So if I were to find a light on big ALS online for $481 Canadian and the same light on marine depot for $360 with $51 shipping. I would be able to order the light for $411. Or does it only deal with online retailers that are exclusively Canadian?

So if I were to find a light on big ALS online for $481 Canadian and the same light on marine depot for $360 with $51 shipping. I would be able to order the light for $411. Or does it only deal with online retailers that are exclusively Canadian?

If I order from you in the US, ship to a relative in IL, and have that relative ship to me in Canada, all factors figured in (additional shipping, taxes, etc), it would be still be 30% cheaper than ordering from your Canadian site.

If I order from you in the US, ship to a relative in IL, and have that relative ship to me in Canada, all factors figured in (additional shipping, taxes, etc), it would be still be 30% cheaper than ordering from your Canadian site.

Register Now

In order to be able to post messages on the The Planted Tank Forum forums, you must first register.
Please enter your desired user name, your email address and other required details in the form below.

User Name:

Password

Please enter a password for your user account. Note that passwords are case-sensitive.

Password:

Confirm Password:

Email Address

Please enter a valid email address for yourself.

Email Address:

OR

Log-in

User Name

Password

Remember Me?

Human Verification

In order to verify that you are a human and not a spam bot, please enter the answer into the following box below based on the instructions contained in the graphic.